If you’re more of a video type, I have uploaded from Facebook live onto YouTube our keynote. It’s not great audio, and it is in two parts because the WiFi was being funky. So if you are patient and you have a low tolerance for video quality, the message is still (in my humble opinion) top notch and spot on!

Part One….

Part Two…

I’ll leave you with this last thought from Shelly,

“The point is advocating on behalf of the entire agriculture industry can be exhausting and take up too much time. You do it, I do it, we do it because it benefits us, our farm, and more importantly our future farm.”

Today my good friend Shelly and I gave a keynote for Dunn Carney’s Ag Summit. It was such a great opportunity and we both really enjoyed ourselves.

I hope that folks got something from our message. I also have to say that preparing for something like this, as you would imagine includes quite the process. What to speak about, how to speak well together and inevitably how to look good while together up on stage.

So to expand more on the clothes part…we both have a sort of go to outfit that we know we both feel good in. We are farmers, so our business attire is far from vast! So we decided the night before, this is what we were going to look like…This photo was taken a few months ago at a farm bureau event at the same location as today. No big deal right? Well here’s the kicker folks. We did not realize that this picture, these outfits would be used in the handbook passed out to everyone. So today we look EXACTLY the same as our photo. We are dying!!!! It’s hilarious!!!!! But maybe it was on purpose, I mean you need to be recognizable and consistent in your story right?! (This was not on purpose hahahaha!)

So my advice…maybe try to mix it up a bit…and if you get caught with…hmm…the same pants on, you might as well own it!

Every year my mom gets me a Mary Engelbreit calendar. It’s one of those that you get to daily tear off a sheet and each day has some great little picture and quote. I love it, mostly because some are hilarious, and some just fit with life as it comes at me. Today as I tore into 2017 this is what January 2nd looked like…

“Whether it’s the best of times or the worst of times, it’s the only time you’ve got.”

I wanted to share this today because 2016 ended with some of the worst of times for our small town, losing a great friend and incredible man to a very tragic car accident. I needed to read this today to remember that even in the worst of times you must use the time that you have to love on all those who are in your life. Life can be short, unpredictable, wonderful and awful…so make the most of all of it.

I know that Rob did all of that and he loved life and his friends and family with all that he had. He was a good husband and a great dad to an almost 2 year old little boy. The fact that he was taken too soon can’t be denied, but what we do with his legacy, that is up to us from now on.

Rest in Peace Rob, cheers to your life and your love, I promise we won’t let it fade. And for you 2016, thank you for all the good and for all the bad. May 2017 bring what it will…

And in the words of one of my favorite writers,

“As we celebrate. As we grieve. As we kiss. As we rage. As we dance. As we continue on. As we say goodbye, we thank God that things also begin. If I’ve learned anything this year and any other year and especially this week with heaven gaining so many precious angels- it’s to tell the people you love that you love them, often.”

Please say a prayer for Rob’s family during this difficult and trying time. And you find it in your heart, there is a GoFundMe site that has been set up for his wife and little guy. Click here to learn more.